Rebel News Podcast - Rebel Roundup ｜ Fallout from Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin

00:00:00.000 Oh, hi, everybody. Great to see you. Ezra Levant here doing our weekly live stream. We used to do

00:00:19.240 them every day, but then we had an epiphany, which is the place for our journalists is out

00:00:24.180 in the world, out on the streets where the stories are. I do some journalism in the streets too, but

00:00:30.400 I do a daily podcast, as you may know. We call it the Ezra Levant Show. That's my name. And you can

00:00:37.880 get it for free in audio format. To get the video format, go to rebelnewsplus.com. It's eight bucks a

00:00:46.480 month. I think it's good value, but frankly, the real reason we do that is that's how we pay the

00:00:51.880 bills around here. We don't get any government money. We're being demonetized by YouTube. So

00:00:56.540 please consider going to Rebel News Plus. Anyways, I think the whole world was watching

00:01:02.880 Tucker Carlson's interview with Vladimir Putin last night. Go to the Twitter account, and how many

00:01:09.660 views has that video had on Twitter alone? And remember, Tucker Carlson pointed people towards

00:01:18.360 his own website, TuckerCarlson.com, where he had the interview up for, I think, 45 minutes first

00:01:26.420 before putting it on Twitter X. A ton of people saw it. I was, in fact, thinking that perhaps

00:01:33.320 Tucker Carlson's website would crash with all the traffic, but what's the latest count there? My little

00:01:39.740 window is blocking it, so I can't see it. 130 million views. Now, I don't know how accurate

00:01:50.460 that's what a view count is. Does that mean someone was just scrolling by it and watched it for a

00:01:55.620 fraction of a second? Probably has some of that. But how many people watched a significant portion

00:02:03.480 of it? And I think these days, even five minutes is significant. The reason I say that is, when was the

00:02:09.200 last time you actually heard Vladimir Putin speak in his own voice, as opposed to what we call B-roll

00:02:16.340 in the TV business? B-roll is what we're showing right now. Two people, but you don't hear their

00:02:23.480 voice. It's just background footage while I talk. That's actually how you normally see Vladimir Putin.

00:02:31.540 Joe Biden, you probably get a lot of him in five to 20-second soundbites. And frankly, that's about all

00:02:38.260 Joe Biden can handle these days. But my point is, listening to Vladimir Putin through a translator,

00:02:44.980 he was speaking Russian and it was translated through a translator, hearing him for five minutes

00:02:50.400 is probably more than anyone, than 99% of people have heard from him ever, partly because he speaks

00:02:57.480 Russian, partly because he's a foreigner who's not the center of Canadian or American news. But I think,

00:03:03.360 in large part, there has been a political decision by the media political industrial complex not to

00:03:13.200 platform Putin. And I don't think that that's conjecture on my part. I know it's a fact. In fact,

00:03:19.760 Russia Today, which is a state-owned broadcaster, has been booted off of YouTube, booted out of,

00:03:27.840 I think it's banned from Canadian TV. I'd have to double check that. So they're, I mean, they're

00:03:33.180 overt about it. You're not allowed to hear from Vladimir Putin because he's evil. And I think,

00:03:40.560 of course, to a degree, that's true that he's evil. He's an authoritarian ruler. I think it's fair

00:03:45.800 to call him a dictator, even though that there are some trappings of democracy in Russia. I don't think

00:03:51.780 they have fully free and fair elections. I think that the majority of their journalists are government

00:03:57.660 controlled or government funded, and critical journalists often wind up dead. However, we would

00:04:03.860 never arrest journalists who contradicted the government, maybe with the exception of Julian

00:04:08.600 Assange. And we would never have government controlled journalists in the West, except for,

00:04:14.320 of course, the CBC, the BBC, PBS, and in Canada, 99% of the media are subsidized.

00:04:20.420 I'm only half kidding. In the United States, the courts are trying to bump Donald Trump off the

00:04:27.160 ballot. That's a Putin move. I'm not equating the level of freedom in Canada and the United States

00:04:34.080 with the level of freedom in Russia. I don't think I'll ever go to Russia because I'm afraid for my

00:04:39.860 liberty. Because some years ago, I wrote a book that mocked Vladimir Putin and disparaged their

00:04:45.760 natural gas monopoly called Gazprom. Frankly, I don't think I should go to Russia for my safety.

00:04:51.760 That said, I don't think I should go to Ukraine either for the same reason. All of this is a

00:04:57.400 long-winded throat clearing exercise to say last night's interview was remarkable because not just

00:05:03.920 for 30 seconds or five minutes, but for rather two full hours, Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin spoke.

00:05:12.560 And I think Tucker Carlson himself was caught by surprise by that. He had a little preamble to

00:05:20.720 his video, and we'll show, let's show the preamble in a second, where he sort of, he shows the whole

00:05:25.900 thing uncut. But for the first 10 seconds, he sort of pre-apologizes for something he realized he did,

00:05:33.400 which is he asked Putin a question about Ukraine. You ask any Western leader a question, they're going

00:05:40.240 to give you an answer between 30 seconds and two minutes, max. Well, Vladimir Putin had a half hour

00:05:47.380 answer to that question. And I don't think Tucker Carlson, I'm not going to say he didn't like it,

00:05:52.720 he was afraid that it was Putin's way of just not really having the interview of just using Tucker's

00:06:00.120 audience as a propaganda platform for himself. But I think, and you'll hear from Tucker, we'll play the

00:06:07.160 clip in about 30 seconds. I think Tucker Carlson was just surprised that an answer to a question got

00:06:12.960 a half hour response. And Tucker Carlson was worried that that was his whole interview time. In fact,

00:06:18.060 it was two hours, and Tucker Carlson himself wrapped it up. So I just want to play for you,

00:06:23.060 because that says something too. Vladimir Putin doesn't do a scrum every day. And when he does press

00:06:29.900 conferences, they're very deferential. He doesn't have reporters ambushing him, certainly they'd be shot.

00:06:36.240 He doesn't have tough attack accountability questions. They're generally soft. So I think

00:06:43.380 that Vladimir Putin just simply does not think and speak in the manner of Western politicians. And I

00:06:49.260 think Tucker Carlson was thinking like a Western journalist. Anyhow, here, let's play this little

00:06:54.140 preamble by Tucker Carlson. I just want to show you that, because I think it's a premonition of the

00:06:59.480 whole two hours. Take a look. The following is an interview with the president of Russia, Vladimir

00:07:04.780 Putin, shot February 6, 2024, at about 7 p.m. in the building behind us, which is, of course,

00:07:11.280 the Kremlin. The interview, as you will see if you watch it, is primarily about the war in progress,

00:07:16.700 the war in Ukraine, how it started, what's happening, and most presently, how it might end.

00:07:22.560 One note before you watch. At the beginning of the interview, we asked the most obvious question,

00:07:27.160 which is, why did you do this? Did you feel a threat, an imminent physical threat? And that's

00:07:32.020 your justification. And the answer we got shocked us. Putin went on for a very long time, probably

00:07:38.640 half an hour, about the history of Russia going back to the 8th century. And honestly, we thought

00:07:45.680 this was a filibustering technique and found it annoying and interrupted him several times. And he

00:07:49.900 responded, he was annoyed by the interruption. But we concluded in the end, for what it's worth,

00:07:55.680 that it was not a filibustering technique. There was no time limit on the interview. We ended it

00:07:59.880 after more than two hours. Instead, what you're about to see seemed to us sincere, whether you

00:08:05.420 agree with it or not. Vladimir Putin believes that Russia has a historic claim to parts of Western

00:08:10.800 Ukraine. So our opinion would be to view it in that light as a sincere expression of what he thinks.

00:08:16.860 And with that, here it is.

00:08:19.840 Mr. President.

00:08:22.000 So that's interesting, because that, and I'll be honest with you, I didn't watch the entire half

00:08:29.600 hour history lesson. It just got way too obscure for me. Maybe I should watch the whole thing,

00:08:35.740 but I actually don't have a half hour's worth of interest in the deep, detailed history of Russian

00:08:43.060 borders. But the reason it's important nonetheless, and the reason it was important enough for Putin

00:08:49.740 to talk about for half an hour, and the reason I think that Putin wants to say it is because I think

00:08:54.240 he actually is motivated by history and a sense of destiny. And if you do listen to the history of

00:08:59.920 Russia, you'll understand that it's a history of war and a history of invasion, whether it's the Nazis

00:09:07.880 or whether it's Napoleon. And I think that in our 20-second soundbite culture of 2024,

00:09:17.600 I don't think people know their history. I mean, is there any Canadian politician who could

00:09:25.140 talk to you for half an hour about a detailed history of this country? I think Stephen Harper

00:09:30.060 actually could do it. Do you think Justin Trudeau could talk for half an hour about the history of

00:09:35.000 Canada without it devolving into some woke, fake, artificial history of diversity or whatever?

00:09:42.560 I don't think he knows it. He doesn't know the dates of battles. He doesn't know this king and

00:09:47.120 that colonist. He doesn't know that. He doesn't know about Upper Canada and Lower Canada and the

00:09:52.620 1867 Confederation. He doesn't know that stuff. And that's not what motivates him. He is a man of the

00:09:59.040 instant. He's like a fruit fly. His attention span is the same. Whereas Putin talks for half an hour

00:10:06.060 about history because he feels like he's a link in the chain of that history and he's the keeper of

00:10:11.240 that history and the destiny and the legacy. That's part of it, I think, is to show his mindset what

00:10:16.060 motivates him. And then the second is, more weaponized, I suppose, is when he talks about the

00:10:24.540 history of the borders of Ukraine and Poland, he makes the audacious suggestion that Ukraine is not

00:10:33.720 a history, does not have the same history and sovereign authenticity that Russia does. And by the

00:10:42.520 way, borders there change all the time. Let me tell you about the city of Lviv. Well, that's what it's

00:10:49.500 called under Ukraine. But when it was under Russian control, it was called Lvov. And when it was under

00:10:56.780 Polish control, it was called Lemberg. It's the same city, but it's been in three different countries.

00:11:06.420 Vladimir Putin's case is, well, that's actually Russia, greater Russia, you could say. And he talks

00:11:12.000 about new Russia, Novorossišk. And I'm probably boring you just saying these words, but if you don't

00:11:18.360 think, I think the Russian mind is different than ours, especially the Russian political mind,

00:11:24.240 certainly the Russian literary and poetic mind. I think it's darker because they have a darker history

00:11:30.460 and they straddle such a vast continent. I think that there's a history of brutality there that is

00:11:37.020 that although the Europeans matched it during the Holocaust, I think the eternal brutality and the

00:11:43.940 cheapness of life and the constancy of war and suffering, I actually do think that that manifests

00:11:52.380 itself in Putin's outlook on the world. And you may say that's evil, and you could be right. But I think

00:11:59.800 one of the great political and geo and diplomatic values in the interview that Tucker Carlson did last

00:12:08.720 night was that let us look at Vladimir Putin. And he's a former KGB agent. He's a trickster. He's a

00:12:16.480 propagandist. He's a deceiver, of course. But I think those are traits shared by many world leaders,

00:12:22.560 including in democracies. Do you think Bill Clinton was anything other than a master deceiver?

00:12:29.320 But at least it lets you see who he is. And when was the last time you saw who he is?

00:12:33.480 Would you be interested in a two-hour interview with Xi Jinping, the Chinese dictator? Now he's evil.

00:12:42.940 He's a killer. He's a brutal man. He's a racist. He's a warmonger. Okay. But are you not interested

00:12:51.180 in hearing him for two hours? When was the last time you heard more than 30 seconds from Xi Jinping?

00:12:56.560 And would any journalist who would go and conduct such an interview be considered

00:12:59.860 a traitor? So what Hillary Clinton said about Tucker Carlson? If we have that clip, grab it.

00:13:07.360 In fact, I think one of the most interesting things about this interview

00:13:10.200 was what happened before it even was recorded. It was almost unanimous in the media party

00:13:19.000 that Tucker Carlson should not do this, comma, can I do this? I think it was Christiana

00:13:27.840 Manpur, who has done work for CNN and others. And she's done some great interviews in her day,

00:13:34.300 by the way, who said, well, Tucker Carlson is not a real journalist. I've been trying to get this

00:13:39.960 interview. That sort of says it all. Here's Hillary Clinton telling a reporter that Tucker Carlson

00:13:46.580 should face possible prosecution for even daring to talk to the guy. Take a look.

00:13:51.680 Go ahead. I mean, he's like a puppy dog. You know, he somehow has, after having been fired from so many

00:14:01.060 outlets in the United States, he, I would not be surprised if he emerges with a contract with

00:14:08.040 outlet because he is a useful idiot. He says things that are not true. He parrots Vladimir Putin's

00:14:13.920 pack of lies about Ukraine. So I don't see why Putin wouldn't give him an interview because through

00:14:22.760 him, he can, you know, continue to lie about what his, you know, objectives are in Ukraine and,

00:14:29.620 and, you know, what he expects to see happen. It's really quite sad that not just somebody like

00:14:36.300 Tucker Carlson, who has, as I said, been fired so many times because he seems unable to, you know,

00:14:44.340 correlate his reporting with the truth. But also because it's a sign that there are people in this

00:14:53.300 country right now who are like a fifth column for Vladimir Putin. And why? I don't know. I mean,

00:14:59.840 why are certain Republicans throwing their lot in? Why are, you know, other Americans basically

00:15:06.580 believing Putin? Why did Trump believe Putin more than our 11 intelligence agencies?

00:15:13.560 I don't know. Do you have a working theory on that?

00:15:15.460 I think you have a working theory.

00:15:19.320 There's a lot in there, actually. Let me just take a second there. And I'm just going to take

00:15:25.060 her at face value for a minute. I mean, put aside the fact that she's basically against the interview.

00:15:32.080 Actually, that's sort of the essence of what she said. She said one of the main reasons was that

00:15:36.960 Putin lies. So you shouldn't interview a man who lies. I'm sorry, but I think every politician lies.

00:15:47.720 And occasionally, I think almost every person lies. Now, hopefully most of us don't lie as a matter

00:15:54.700 of course. And most of us don't deal with momentous things that require massive dark lies. But I

00:16:02.760 recall Winston Churchill himself said the truth needs a bodyguard of lies. The truth is so precious,

00:16:10.480 it needs a bodyguard of lies. He was talking about what life is like in wartime. You might recall that

00:16:17.800 Churchill had body doubles because deceiving the enemy about where he was was important because,

00:16:22.920 of course, there were German spies trying to kill him. So in wartime, do you doubt that both sides

00:16:29.880 engaged in lies? And I'm not here to beat up NATO, but there were so many pro-Ukraine lies. The ghost

00:16:36.640 of Kiev, some mysterious fighter pilot who was shooting down all the Russian planes, or Snake Island,

00:16:42.980 where a handful of Ukrainian soldiers held off the entire Russian army. There were all these

00:16:48.460 little propagandals. Welcome to wartime.

00:16:55.420 You know, war is fought by many means. A lot of it is kinetic, but a lot of it is propaganda.

00:17:02.060 During the Second World War, there was Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose, who were English language radio hosts

00:17:08.460 in Germany and Japan, saying demoralizing things to the Western troops. And of course,

00:17:14.360 the allies would drop leaflets on the bad guys trying to convince them to surrender. Welcome to

00:17:20.020 wartime. But if we don't interview politicians because we think they're going to lie. So he

00:17:26.700 hadn't even lied yet. And I'm not sure what, there was one thing Putin said last night that might be a

00:17:31.120 lie, and I'm going to talk about it in a minute. But even if he is a liar, shouldn't we hear the lies?

00:17:37.480 And maybe we'll expose the lies? Or maybe, maybe they're not actually lies. Maybe they're just

00:17:42.080 falsehoods that Putin believes. Or maybe, just maybe, there are certain things he says that we

00:17:48.120 don't like, but may be true. And for example, his history about Ukraine, and its historical

00:17:57.200 authenticity, and its historical place, maybe it's wrong. But I don't think Putin's lying. He may just have

00:18:06.040 an antagonistic belief. But if we were to take Hillary Clinton's advice, we could not interview

00:18:16.420 people who engaged in lies. I don't think you would have a lot of interviews with world leaders.

00:18:22.240 But look at the second thing. The left really does this. They project their own thinking onto their

00:18:27.780 opponents. Hillary Clinton talked about Tucker Carlson leaving Moscow with a fat contract.

00:18:36.040 Did you catch that part? As in, she thought he would be paid by Putin, get some contact with

00:18:45.500 Russia today or something. I don't think Tucker Carlson's short of money. I think he's doing,

00:18:51.420 he did quite well when he was with official broadcasters. And now that he's an independent

00:18:56.260 broadcaster, I think he's doing great, actually. But I think that shows you more about how Hillary

00:19:02.740 Clinton thinks and about how Tucker Carlson thinks. And not just how she thinks. Do you remember the

00:19:08.160 Clinton Foundation? I'll give you a quick refresher on it. When Bill Clinton was done being president,

00:19:16.780 but his wife Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, the family set up the Clinton Foundation.

00:19:22.540 And it got massive donations from all sorts of countries around the world,

00:19:27.540 including from Canada, where countries would give, I'm serious, $5 million, $10 million, $25 million a

00:19:35.760 pop to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state. So Hillary Clinton would

00:19:43.640 be making some decision as secretary of state about some part of the world. And then surprise,

00:19:49.720 $10, $20, $30 million from that country would go into the Clinton Foundation. It was just, Bill, I'm just a retired

00:19:57.560 president. Like Hillary Clinton wrung money out of every single transaction she had, including from Russia and from

00:20:05.320 Ukraine. And evidence suggests that Joe Biden did too. I don't think for, I've been watching Tucker Carlson for years.

00:20:12.940 I'm a fan. Obviously I've appeared on his show probably three or four times. Um, I don't think he would ever take

00:20:21.360 money from a foreign entity because that would destroy his whole reputation. And for what does he, does he need an

00:20:27.280 extra $5 million or $10 million? I think he's, he's extremely, uh, rich, you know, we had the, he had the top running

00:20:36.480 show on cable news for years. Um, I understand his speaking fee is a quarter million bucks.

00:20:46.180 I really don't think he would sell his soul for 5 million bucks. I think he's probably worth 50 to

00:20:52.720 a hundred million bucks, but Hillary Clinton, I think she showed us into her own mind. Um,

00:21:00.020 anyway, I wanted to show you that because there was this wall of outrage that this interview was

00:21:04.880 happening, but I don't think it was because they thought Tucker would be obsequious. I think it's

00:21:10.300 because they just didn't want Putin to be heard in the West. I want to show you one more clip and I

00:21:17.160 shouldn't show you this, but it's just too funny. Tucker Carlson last night asked, I think most of his

00:21:24.980 questions were, I would just call them good questions. Um, some of them were sort of hobby questions that,

00:21:32.280 that Carlson himself has been asking for years and I wouldn't call them hobby questions. They'd

00:21:37.520 clearly be on his mind and I'm, you knew he was going to ask them, but there was one question,

00:21:42.360 his very last question. And it was a series of questions went on for almost 10 minutes.

00:21:48.380 Can we do that? This is where he was the end of his interview. So you put the toughest question

00:21:54.200 right at the end in case the person you're interviewing storms out. Now, I don't think Vladimir Putin

00:22:01.200 storms out of a meeting. I think he makes the other guy storm out. Um, but I want to show you

00:22:09.540 the interaction between Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin about an American reporter who is in jail

00:22:18.700 in Russia accused of espionage. So, I mean, there was this basketball player, I think, who was arrested

00:22:29.480 on drug charges and, and, you know, there, there's people arrested occasionally from this side or from

00:22:34.720 that side. You can find it in the main, yeah, in the main one and just go, it's the very last series

00:22:39.820 of questions. So he leaves his toughest question for the end and he's pretty blunt and he tries to put

00:22:49.780 Putin on the spot and Putin dodges a few times, but I think Tucker comes back at him four times.

00:23:00.580 I think it was actually Tucker's most, uh, you know, repeated line of questioning.

00:23:11.140 I would just go to the, um, main video, open it up and then go to the end and just sort of manually find it.

00:23:21.960 Yeah. So I would, I would start it around there and just open it up here. Let's see if we can find it

00:23:29.600 together. Go ahead and make that full screen. Put the audio up.

00:23:37.680 If you're having trouble on, on Twitter, you could even do it on his webpage, um, Tucker Carlson.com.

00:23:44.880 Okay. Go ahead and pump up the volume.

00:23:46.540 It's nature. The more difficult it becomes to resolve them. Everything has to be done in calm

00:23:53.000 manner. I wonder if that's, I wonder if that's true with the war though. Also, I mean, I just want to,

00:23:58.000 I guess I want to ask one more question, which is, and maybe you don't want to say so for strategic

00:24:02.960 reasons, but are you worried that what's happening in Ukraine could lead to something much larger?

00:24:11.140 Let me give you a minute to find it and come back when you found it. He presses Putin,

00:24:16.540 on the release of an American journalist, 32 year old man from the wall street journal

00:24:21.100 charged with espionage. And Putin comes back and says, well, he was charged with espionage

00:24:27.960 and Tucker says, look, he's a 32 year old kid. Now let's be honest, 32 years old is not a kid.

00:24:33.460 And, uh, you can certainly be a spy if you're 32 years old. Um, but he comes back again and again and

00:24:44.840 again. And he says, I want to leave here with this journalist. I, will you let him leave with me?

00:24:54.060 And Putin says, we've done so many decent things already. So many gestures of goodwill were empty,

00:25:00.600 but Tucker doesn't leave it alone. He comes back again and again. And actually the last,

00:25:06.360 one of the last words Putin has on the matter, and seriously, they go back and forth about four times

00:25:10.240 is, uh, well, I'm sure he belongs back in his homeland. And I got to tell you, it wouldn't surprise

00:25:17.840 me one bit if this 32 year old prisoner is released in the days ahead. I think Putin just didn't want

00:25:27.380 to do this on live or not in a live interview. I don't, I don't think he makes decisions that way.

00:25:35.360 I don't think he respects journalists or fears journalists enough to, to be commanded by them,

00:25:41.200 um, to do anything like that. But I think, uh, I think he actually will release this journalist

00:25:50.760 for his own credit, but also to help Tucker Carlson, who's given Putin an enormously large audience

00:26:02.140 that, because it's the largest audience that Tucker's ever had, but it's the largest audience

00:26:08.500 that Putin's ever had. It looks like you found it. Go ahead, play the clip.

00:26:12.660 I just got to ask you one last question. And that's about someone who's very famous in the

00:26:16.700 United States, probably not here. Evan Gershkovitz, who's the Wall Street Journal reporter. He's 32.

00:26:23.600 Um, and he's been in prison for almost a year. Uh, this is a huge story in the United States. And I just

00:26:28.500 want to ask you directly, without getting into the details of it, or your version of what happened,

00:26:33.280 if as a sign of your decency, you would be willing to release him to us and we'll bring him back to the

00:26:39.740 United States.

00:26:48.380 We have done so many gestures of goodwill out of decency, that I think, you know, it's a huge

00:26:58.480 we have run out of them.

00:27:01.700 We have never seen anyone reciprocate to us in a similar manner. However, in theory, we can say that

00:27:10.300 we do not rule out that we can do that, if our partners take reciprocal steps.

00:27:17.180 When I talk about the partners, I, first of all, refer to special services. Special services are in

00:27:27.940 contact with one another, they are talking about the matter in question. There is no taboo to settle

00:27:36.240 this issue. We are willing to solve it. But there are certain terms being discussed via special services

00:27:44.420 channels. I believe an agreement can be reached.

00:27:49.460 So typically, I mean, this stuff has happened for obviously centuries. One country catches another

00:27:56.440 spy within its borders, it trades it for one of its own intel guys in another country. I think what

00:28:01.740 makes, and it's not my business, but what makes this difference is the guy's obviously not a spy,

00:28:06.240 he's a kid. And maybe he was breaking your law in some way, but he's not a super spy. And everybody

00:28:10.980 knows that. And he's being held hostage in exchange, which is true. With respect, it's true. And everyone knows

00:28:15.740 it's true. So maybe he's in a different category. Maybe it's not fair to ask for, you know, somebody

00:28:23.020 else in exchange for letting him out. Maybe it degrades Russia to do that.

00:28:33.200 You know, you can give different interpretations to what constitutes a spy. But there are certain things

00:28:40.220 white crimes. If a terrorist is required, and these are categorized crimes, Submarineurs,

00:28:46.500 they're told by someone. If the person gets secret information, and does that in a conspiratorial

00:28:50.340 manner, then this is qualified as espionage. And that is exactly what he was doing. He was

00:28:54.100 receiving classified, confidential information, and he did it covertly. Maybe he did that out

00:29:00.000 of carelessness, or his own initiative. Considering the sheer fact this is qualified as espionage.

00:29:05.820 In sheer fact, this is qualified as espionage.

00:29:08.820 The fact has been proven, as he was caught red-handed when he was receiving this information.

00:29:14.820 If it had been some far-fetched excuse, some fabrication, something not proven,

00:29:20.820 it would have been a different story then.

00:29:23.820 But he was caught red-handed when he was secretly getting confidential information.

00:29:28.820 What is it then?

00:29:30.820 Were you suggesting that he was working for the US government or NATO, or he was just a reporter who was given material he wasn't supposed to have?

00:29:37.820 Those seem like very different things.

00:29:44.820 I don't know who he was working for.

00:29:50.820 But I would like to reiterate that getting classified information in secret is called espionage.

00:29:59.820 And he was working for the US special services, some other agencies.

00:30:06.820 I don't think he was working for Monaco, as Monaco is hardly interested in getting that information.

00:30:13.820 It is up to special services to come to an agreement.

00:30:17.820 Some groundwork has been laid.

00:30:19.820 There are people who, in our view, are not connected with special services.

00:30:25.820 Let me tell you a story about a person serving a...

00:30:30.820 Anyways, it goes on.

00:30:32.820 Do you see how long he's going on about this?

00:30:34.820 I think it was the longest...

00:30:35.820 And that's not even the full clip.

00:30:37.820 That was just a little clip we found online.

00:30:39.820 Tucker Carlson is like a dog with a bone.

00:30:42.820 And I actually think that Putin is going to give that 32 years...

00:30:46.820 And by the way, 32 years old is not a kid.

00:30:51.820 And journalists often are spies because they have access and because asking questions is their job and getting tips is their job.

00:31:00.820 I don't know if this guy's...

00:31:01.820 How would I know?

00:31:02.820 But it's notable that Tucker Carlson was so energetic about it.

00:31:09.820 And I'm sure that that kid's...

00:31:11.820 That kid...

00:31:12.820 That man's family is grateful to him.

00:31:13.820 And if he's released, he'll be grateful to him.

00:31:17.820 And I put it to you that probably most corporate media reporters wouldn't ask that question of Putin.

00:31:24.820 And if they did, they certainly wouldn't come back at it again and again and again.

00:31:29.820 The way...

00:31:30.820 In fact, that could have gone on for five more minutes, but that was just a short extract.

00:31:35.820 So we'll wrap that up there.

00:31:38.820 But again, Putin answers in different ways, doesn't he?

00:31:43.820 I don't think that Putin would ever answer a question based on feeling pressure from a reporter.

00:31:51.820 Because I just don't think in Putin's world, reporters are centers of power.

00:31:57.820 He's not worried about what the front page of Izvestia is going to say tomorrow in the same way that Trudeau might be worried about what the front page of the Global Mail is going to say tomorrow.

00:32:07.820 So I just don't think that Putin responds in the same way.

00:32:11.820 And I don't know.

00:32:13.820 I thought he probably thought that was boring and playful, if anything.

00:32:16.820 But there were some very interesting things.

00:32:18.820 So we've been talking around the interview a little bit.

00:32:20.820 But I want to go to what I think were some of the most interesting moments.

00:32:24.820 The single most startling fact, and I don't think it's a Hillary Clinton said it's a lie.

00:32:32.820 I don't think it's a lie.

00:32:34.820 If it was a lie, I think it would be have been disproven immediately.

00:32:41.820 Vladimir Putin says he has not talked to Joe Biden in two years.

00:32:48.820 Really?

00:32:49.820 Like not even a private conversation, not even just a, hey, let's keep the lines of communication open.

00:32:56.820 Hey, let's make sure we don't escalate.

00:32:58.820 Or, hey, should we have a back check?

00:33:00.820 Like just no conversation in two years.

00:33:06.820 Here's the clip.

00:33:07.820 Let's take a look.

00:33:09.820 But you haven't spoken to him since before February of 2022?

00:33:16.820 No, we haven't spoken.

00:33:21.820 Certain contacts are being maintained, though.

00:33:24.820 Speaking of which, do you remember what I told you about my proposal to work together on a missile defense system?

00:33:34.820 Yes.

00:33:35.820 You can ask all of them.

00:33:39.820 All of them are safe and sound, thank God.

00:33:42.820 The former president, Condoleezza, is safe and sound.

00:33:46.820 And I think Mr. Gates and the current director of the intelligence agency, Mr. Burns, the then ambassador to Russia.

00:33:55.820 In my opinion.

00:33:56.820 I think this is a clip that came after.

00:33:58.820 But I think you saw the revelation there.

00:34:00.820 Biden hasn't talked to, hasn't talked to Putin and vice versa.

00:34:07.820 And in a way, I think that's really good.

00:34:09.820 Because Joe Biden is absolutely failing in front of our very eyes.

00:34:16.820 He's sort of falling apart.

00:34:19.820 Tucker didn't follow up by saying, why are you talking to the vice president?

00:34:22.820 Because I think we know, obviously, that didn't happen.

00:34:25.820 And again, I think that's very good.

00:34:27.820 Could you imagine if Kamala Harris was in charge of handling Russia?

00:34:31.820 Oh, my God.

00:34:32.820 We'd have World War III by now already for sure.

00:34:36.820 How about, you know, I think there's probably contact between the FSB, which is the successor to the KGB, and the CIA.

00:34:44.820 I think they probably talk all the time.

00:34:46.820 I think probably the head of the Red Army, if it's still called that, probably does talk to some counterpart at NATO.

00:34:53.820 Probably in some formal communication.

00:34:56.820 Remember, they had the red hot telephone in the White House and the Kremlin that was designed to have lines of communication.

00:35:05.820 So I think probably someone is keeping in touch.

00:35:09.820 But the fact that it's not Biden is astonishing to me.

00:35:12.820 There's one more thing that Putin said that I just don't know if it's true, and it may be a lie.

00:35:22.820 Because it's just so unlikely.

00:35:26.820 But maybe it's unlikely because we've just never heard it before.

00:35:29.820 It's when Putin claimed that there was, I mean, everyone knows there was a negotiation, a peace negotiation, very early in the war, a year and a half ago.

00:35:43.820 I think it was happening in Istanbul, Turkey.

00:35:47.820 And they had a tentative agreement that Vladimir Zelensky himself had tentatively agreed to.

00:35:56.820 And there's sort of two parts to the story that are incredible.

00:35:59.820 The first part is actually sort of already known.

00:36:02.820 It's that Russia and Zelensky had more or less agreed that we're going to have peace after six months, not after two years.

00:36:12.820 A peace that would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

00:36:18.820 But Boris Johnson, the former prime minister of the UK, he wasn't even in PM at that time, was dispatched on behalf of NATO and America to scupper the deal, to tell Zelensky, don't you dare sign it.

00:36:30.820 Do you have that part of the clip?

00:36:32.820 Okay, let's take a look.

00:36:35.820 Yeah, I think so.

00:36:36.820 Let's take a look.

00:36:38.820 It was they who started the war in 2014.

00:36:42.820 Our goal is to stop this war.

00:36:45.820 And we did not start this war in 2022.

00:36:48.820 This is an attempt to stop it.

00:36:51.820 Do you think you've stopped it now?

00:36:55.820 I mean, have you achieved your aims?

00:37:00.820 No, we haven't achieved our aims yet, because one of them is the Nazification.

00:37:07.820 This means the prohibition of all kinds of neo-Nazi movements.

00:37:11.820 This is one of the problems that we discussed during the negotiation process, which ended in Istanbul early this year.

00:37:20.820 And it was not our initiative, because we were told by the Europeans, in particular, that it was necessary to create conditions for the final signing of the documents.

00:37:35.820 My counterparts in France and Germany said, how can you imagine them signing a treaty with a gun to their heads?

00:37:47.820 The troops should be pulled back from Kyiv.

00:37:49.820 I said, all right, we withdrew the troops from Kyiv.

00:37:55.820 As soon as we pulled back our troops from Kyiv, our Ukrainian negotiators immediately threw all our agreements reached in Istanbul into the bend and got prepared for a long-standing armed confrontation with the help of the United States and its satellites in Europe.

00:38:13.820 That is how the situation has developed, and that is how it looks now.

00:38:20.820 All right, that was the second part.

00:38:23.820 Olivia, I just sent you the clip of the first part.

00:38:27.820 That, I think, is an astonishing thing that I've never heard before.

00:38:30.820 Did you hear what he said?

00:38:31.820 That they were negotiating a peace deal in Istanbul, and Western leaders, I think he said France and Germany, said, how can you have Zelensky negotiate with a gun at his head, pull back from the capital, Kyiv?

00:38:44.820 And Putin claims he pulled back to allow Zelensky to sign the deal, and that's when the West said, ha-ha, we're going to continue to fight.

00:38:55.820 I've never heard that before.

00:38:58.820 I've only heard the Western point of view, which is that, no, the Ukrainian armed forces, with funding and materials from NATO, drove the Russians back.

00:39:09.820 Not that they deliberately withdrew.

00:39:12.820 I find it implausible, but maybe it is the truth.

00:39:17.820 Or maybe it's a lie, a lie that Putin says to keep domestic Russian support, because if Russia was losing a war, that would look terrible.

00:39:29.820 A dictator's power or authoritarian's power is self-reinforcing, self-fulfilling.

00:39:35.820 As long as the dictator looks and sounds powerful, he will be powerful.

00:39:39.820 But the moment he looks vulnerable and weak, it'll all come imploding.

00:39:42.820 So maybe that's a lie.

00:39:43.820 But I have to say, even if it's only 1% chance it's true, that's a heck of a counter-narrative, isn't it?

00:39:51.820 But I just sent, Olivia, another clip that I haven't listened to because I'm on the show, but I saw the description.

00:39:58.820 That Istanbul meeting that they're talking about, that Putin allegedly pulled his tanks back to give Zelensky breathing room to sign it.

00:40:06.120 We've heard from other people.

00:40:07.120 We've heard from the Israeli government who was there saying, yeah, we basically had a deal.

00:40:11.120 We heard from other leaders who were in the room.

00:40:13.120 And here's Putin describing how they essentially had a peace deal a year and a half ago, but the West scuppered it.

00:40:19.120 Take a look.

00:40:21.120 We support this.

00:40:23.120 So I just want to make sure I'm not misunderstanding what you're saying.

00:40:25.120 I don't think that I am.

00:40:26.120 I think you're saying you want a negotiated settlement to what's happening in Ukraine.

00:40:30.120 Right.

00:40:35.120 And we made it.

00:40:38.120 We prepared the huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation.

00:40:45.120 He affixed his signature to some of the provisions.

00:40:48.120 Not to all of it.

00:40:50.120 He put his signature and then he himself said, we were ready to sign it and the war would have been over long ago, 18 months ago.

00:40:59.120 However, Prime Minister Johnson came, talked us out of it.

00:41:03.120 And we missed that chance.

00:41:06.120 We support this.

00:41:08.120 So I just want to make sure I'm not.

00:41:11.120 You know, I think that's incredible.

00:41:14.120 We're learning about the war.

00:41:16.120 We're learning about Putin's openness to a diplomatic resolution.

00:41:23.120 And now Hillary Clinton says it's a pack of lies.

00:41:27.120 And I suppose if someone knows lies, she's a connoisseur of lies.

00:41:31.120 She's an impresario of lies.

00:41:33.120 She's the master and mistress of lies.

00:41:35.120 She would know.

00:41:38.120 Or maybe she just doesn't want to hear Vladimir Putin's point of view.

00:41:44.120 I don't know.

00:41:45.120 But I do know that for a course of two hours, Vladimir Putin talked on a range of subjects with a depth and detail that I think few foreign leaders could match.

00:42:02.120 And that doesn't mean he's a good person.

00:42:04.120 But what it means is that Russia is led by a powerful leader who understands his country and is focused on his country's national goals.

00:42:13.120 Can you say the same about the leaders in the West?

00:42:15.120 Can you say the same about Rishi Sunak in the UK?

00:42:19.120 Can you say the same about Justin Trudeau here?

00:42:21.120 One of the things that the anti-Putin propaganda has led us to believe over the last two years, for example, just one detail, is that Putin was physically very frail and dying.

00:42:34.120 We saw different theories of he had this disease or that disease.

00:42:38.120 Could be.

00:42:39.120 I mean, not all diseases are visible to the eye.

00:42:44.120 But he certainly looked attentive.

00:42:47.120 He looked engrossed.

00:42:50.120 He looked physically comfortable.

00:42:52.120 He didn't look like he was in pain or something.

00:42:54.120 He didn't look like he was on meds, as Biden sometimes does.

00:42:59.120 And according to Tucker, I mean, we saw the video.

00:43:02.120 It was Tucker who wrapped up the interview after two hours.

00:43:05.120 It seems like Putin could have gone on.

00:43:07.120 I just don't know if there's a leader in the West who could hold his own in an unscripted, wide-ranging, content-rich, challenging conversation in the same way.

00:43:25.120 They talked about AI.

00:43:27.120 They talked about genetics.

00:43:29.120 They talked about Elon Musk.

00:43:31.120 They talked about the BRICS group.

00:43:33.120 That's the China-led alternative economic arrangement.

00:43:36.120 They talked about sanctions.

00:43:38.120 They talked about – well, for example, they talked about Russia becoming the largest economy in Russia last year – in Europe last year.

00:43:49.120 And people who watch my show know that's – we did a whole story on – do you have that clip?

00:43:55.120 Go ahead and take a look at this.

00:44:01.120 Russia was the first economy in Europe last year, despite all the sanctions and restrictions.

00:44:06.120 Is it normal from your point of view?

00:44:09.120 Sanctions, restrictions, impossibility of payments in dollars, being cut off from SWIFT services, sanctions against our ships carrying oil, sanctions against airplanes, sanctions in everything, everywhere.

00:44:23.120 The largest number of sanctions in the world which are applied are applied against Russia.

00:44:32.120 And we have become Europe's first economy during this time.

00:44:36.120 By first economy, I mean it's the largest economy.

00:44:41.120 And I was shocked to hear that news a year ago and I checked it out.

00:44:43.120 Indeed, it's true.

00:44:44.120 On a purchasing power parity basis.

00:44:46.120 And what does that mean?

00:44:47.120 How much you can buy?

00:44:49.120 Like the actual value of the economy.

00:44:52.120 Russia exceeded Germany.

00:44:55.120 In my mind, Germany was always this industrial powerhouse.

00:44:57.120 But it's a combination of Germany sort of undoing itself with its green energy schemes and Russia making other arrangements.

00:45:07.120 I mean would you have guessed that Russia would pull ahead of Germany in this sanctions environment?

00:45:13.120 I certainly wouldn't have.

00:45:15.120 I want to play a clip.

00:45:18.120 I just sent you an eight minute long clip, Olivia.

00:45:21.120 We're not going to play all eight minutes of it.

00:45:22.120 But what I found interesting about the conversation, have you heard of the BRICS?

00:45:26.120 I think it stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China or something.

00:45:30.120 It's basically the alternative to the G7.

00:45:34.120 You know what the G7 are, right?

00:45:36.120 The G7 is Canada, the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Japan, and I left one out.

00:45:48.120 I can't remember.

00:45:50.120 And it used to be the G8 with Russia in it, but then they sort of kicked Russia out.

00:45:54.120 So the G7 was sort of the leading world's industrial democracies.

00:45:59.120 I don't know how Canada got in there because I'm not sure if we really are.

00:46:02.120 But this is a China led alternative to the G7.

00:46:08.120 It's challenged.

00:46:09.120 Yeah, there you go.

00:46:10.120 That's the G7.

00:46:11.120 So you can see Japan.

00:46:13.120 Okay, that's BRICS actually.

00:46:15.120 Thanks.

00:46:16.120 I was confused for a second.

00:46:17.120 Yeah, there's the Indian flag.

00:46:19.120 Sorry, I'm looking at the other screen there.

00:46:21.120 So BRICS is an attempt by other countries to say, you know, we don't have to be in an American led world.

00:46:26.120 We don't have to have a U.S. dollar led world.

00:46:29.120 And play the clip that I just sent you just for a few minutes because Putin is dropping statistics and arguments and facts as he goes, no notes.

00:46:43.120 And it's not about the war in Ukraine.

00:46:45.120 He's just talking about the changing center of gravity in the world.

00:46:48.120 Go ahead and play a bit of this.

00:46:51.120 The question is what comes next.

00:46:53.120 And maybe you trade one colonial power for another much less sentimental and forgiving colonial power.

00:46:59.120 I mean, is the BRICS, for example, in danger of being completely dominated by the Chinese economy in a way that's not good for their sovereignty?

00:47:11.120 Do you worry about that?

00:47:16.120 We have heard those boogeyman stories before.

00:47:20.120 It is a boogeyman story.

00:47:22.120 We're neighbors with China.

00:47:24.120 You cannot choose neighbors just as you cannot choose close relatives.

00:47:29.120 We share a border of thousand kilometers with them.

00:47:32.120 This is number one.

00:47:34.120 Second, we have a centuries-long history of coexistence.

00:47:39.120 We're used to it.

00:47:40.120 Third, China's foreign policy philosophy is not aggressive.

00:47:45.120 Its idea is to always look for compromise.

00:47:48.120 And we can see that.

00:47:50.120 The next point is as follows.

00:47:53.120 We are always told the same boogeyman story.

00:47:57.120 And here it goes again.

00:47:59.120 Through an euphemistic form, but it is still the same boogeyman story.

00:48:04.120 The cooperation with China keeps increasing.

00:48:07.120 The pace at which China's cooperation with Europe is growing is higher and greater than that of the growth of Chinese-Russian cooperation.

00:48:16.120 Ask Europeans, aren't they afraid?

00:48:19.120 They might be, I don't know.

00:48:21.120 But they are still trying to access China's market at all costs, especially now that they are facing economic problems.

00:48:31.120 Chinese businesses are also exploring the European market.

00:48:36.120 Do Chinese businesses have small presence in the United States?

00:48:40.120 Yes, the political decisions are such that they are trying to limit their cooperation with China.

00:48:46.120 It is to your own detriment, Mr. Tucker, that you are limiting cooperation with China.

00:48:51.120 You are hurting yourself.

00:48:54.120 It is a delicate matter, and there are no silver bullet solutions, just as it is with the dollar.

00:49:01.120 So, before introducing any illegitimate sanctions, illegitimate in terms of the Charter of the United Nations,

00:49:11.120 one should think very carefully.

00:49:13.120 For decision makers, this appears to be a problem.

00:49:16.120 So, you said a moment ago that the world would be a lot better if it weren't broken into competing alliances, if there was cooperation globally.

00:49:28.120 One of the reasons you don't have that is because the current American administration is dead set against you.

00:49:35.120 Do you think if there were a new administration after Joe Biden, that you would be able to reestablish communication with the U.S. government?

00:49:42.120 Or does it not matter who the president is?

00:49:45.120 I will tell you, but let me finish the previous thought.

00:49:56.120 We, together with my colleague and friend President Xi Jinping, set a goal to reach 200 billion dollars of mutual trade with China this year.

00:50:06.120 We have exceeded this level. According to our figures, our bilateral trade with China totals already 230 billion,

00:50:15.120 and the Chinese statistics says it is 240 billion dollars.

00:50:21.120 One more important thing, our trade is well balanced, mutually complementary in high-tech, energy, scientific research and development.

00:50:30.120 It is very balanced.

00:50:32.120 As for BRICS, where Russia took over the presidency this year, the BRICS countries are, by and large, developing very rapidly.

00:50:43.120 Look, if memory serves me right, back in 1992, the share of the G7 countries in the world economy amounted to 47%,

00:50:55.120 whereas in 2022 it was down to, I think, a little over 30%.

00:51:01.120 The BRICS countries accounted for only 16% in 1992, but now their share is greater than that of the G7.

00:51:13.120 It has nothing to do with the events in Ukraine.

00:51:16.120 This is due to the trends of global development and world economy, as I mentioned just now.

00:51:22.120 And this is inevitable.

00:51:24.120 This will keep happening.

00:51:26.120 It is like the rise of the Sun.

00:51:28.120 You cannot prevent the Sun from rising.

00:51:31.120 You have to adapt to it.

00:51:33.120 How do the United States adapt?

00:51:35.120 With the help of force, sanctions, pressure, bombings and use of armed forces.

00:51:41.120 This is about self-conceit.

00:51:46.120 Your political establishment does not understand that the world is changing under objective circumstances.

00:51:53.120 And in order to preserve your level, even if someone aspires, pardon me, to the level of dominance,

00:52:00.120 you have to make the right decisions in a competent and timely manner.

00:52:05.120 Such brutal actions, including with regard to Russia and, say, other countries, are counterproductive.

00:52:12.120 This is an obvious fact.

00:52:15.120 It has already become evident.

00:52:21.120 You just asked me if another leader comes and changes something.

00:52:25.120 It is not about the leader.

00:52:27.120 It is not about the personality of a particular person.

00:52:31.120 I had a very good relationship with, say, Bush.

00:52:35.120 I know that in the United States he was portrayed as some kind of a country boy who does not understand much.

00:52:43.120 I assure you that this is not the case.

00:52:46.120 I think he made a lot of mistakes with regard to Russia, too.

00:52:50.120 I told you about 2008 and the decision in Bucharest to open the NATO's doors for Ukraine and so on.

00:52:58.120 That happened during his presidency.

00:53:01.120 He actually exercised pressure on the Europeans.

00:53:05.120 But in general, on a personal human level, I had a very good relationship with him.

00:53:10.120 He was no worse than any other American or Russian or European politician.

00:53:16.120 I assure you, he understood what he was doing as well as others.

00:53:21.120 I had such personal relationship with Trump as well.

00:53:26.120 It is not about the personality of the leader.

00:53:30.120 It is about the elite's mindset.

00:53:33.120 If the idea of domination at any cost, based also on forceful actions, dominates the American society, nothing will change.

00:53:43.120 It will only get worse.

00:53:45.120 But if, in the end, one comes to the awareness that the world has been changing due to the objective circumstances,

00:53:54.120 and that one should be able to adapt to them in time, using the advantages that the US still has today, then perhaps something may change.

00:54:04.120 It's a long clip, but I'm glad to have shown it to you.

00:54:12.120 There were so many things in there.

00:54:13.120 Now, I want to start by saying something that I feel just watching this, which is, boy, he talks differently than our politicians do.

00:54:22.120 And there's a lot of reasons for that.

00:54:23.120 Obviously, he has his own personality.

00:54:25.120 But he's Russian.

00:54:27.120 And they don't have a vigorous press scrum style.

00:54:31.120 They don't have it.

00:54:32.120 In fact, I think his very first answer to Tucker was something like, is this a talk show or something?

00:54:39.120 As opposed to Putin was obviously ready for a deep discussion.

00:54:43.120 And he would have kept going.

00:54:45.120 It was Tucker who said, OK, two hours and seven minutes is enough for me.

00:54:50.120 So I think the Western ear, the short attention span mindset, the TikTok generation is not interested in eight minute answers talking about the growth rate of the BRICS economy versus the shrinking of the G7 economy as a proportion of work.

00:55:08.120 But I think maybe that's a Western conceit because we have short attention spans, we have entertainment style politics, and we're America centric.

00:55:18.120 And I say we, Canada and the United States, we're sort of twins.

00:55:21.120 But in Europe, and I saw this when I went to Hungary, and I saw the speech that Viktor Orban gave.

00:55:27.120 And China, they talk about China in Hungary as much as they talk about America.

00:55:34.120 And they're closer to China, and they're closer to Russia.

00:55:39.120 And that's the rest of the world.

00:55:41.120 Not all the rest of the world thinks LA, New York, Washington.

00:55:45.120 And other parts of the world thinks Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, New Delhi, Bombay, you know.

00:55:52.120 And the fact, I think, you know, there was, I don't think we played the exact part of the clip.

00:55:59.120 But when Tucker Carlson said, when was the last time you talked to Biden, his first answer was, I don't know exactly.

00:56:04.120 And Tucker Carlson laughed out loud.

00:56:06.120 If you can find that exact moment, please do, Olivia.

00:56:08.120 Tucker Carlson laughed out loud.

00:56:10.120 And Putin sort of said, you know, I've got a lot of things, a lot of domestic things I worry about.

00:56:16.120 And I don't, I think Putin was just sort of, it was his reaction to Tucker Carlson being absolutely stunned that Vladimir Putin couldn't remember the exact moment he last talked to Biden.

00:56:27.120 And Putin was his, I think it was a genuine response, because it was so reflexive.

00:56:31.120 It was, yeah, I got a lot of busy things I'm worried about.

00:56:35.120 You know, I happen to run one of the largest countries, the largest country in the world geographically, a country that has lots of different languages, ethnicities, religions, lots of different borders, military issues.

00:56:48.120 Yeah, you know, waiting for Joe Biden to call is not exactly, you know, I'm not thinking about him when I go to bed and thinking about him when I wake up in the morning.

00:56:59.120 You know, if you just go into Twitter and type in Putin, Biden phone call, and then click on top, I bet it would come up quick.

00:57:07.120 It just, I just want to show that one moment.

00:57:09.120 But there was a good question and answer exchange there wasn't, and it had nothing to do with Ukraine.

00:57:16.120 So I mean, when Hillary Clinton and other Westerners said, don't listen to the war propagandists, don't listen to the killer, don't listen to the illegal invader.

00:57:25.120 I understand what they're saying. They're saying he's the enemy, don't give him a platform.

00:57:30.120 But does that mean we can't hear what he has to say about the rising place of China and the BRICS countries and how that's inevitable?

00:57:38.120 Should, does that mean that his comments about that are a lie?

00:57:41.120 Do you think he was lying about China, Russia trade?

00:57:44.120 I thought it was a very interesting answer that he said, don't tell me about China trade.

00:57:50.120 Europe is more hungry for the Chinese market than even we are.

00:57:53.120 I don't know if you caught that part.

00:57:55.120 I thought the most, I thought it was interesting to hear his reflections on talking about, talking to different politicians.

00:58:01.120 He was friendly with George W. Bush, I believe he would.

00:58:04.120 He didn't mention Hillary Clinton, which is interesting to me because Hillary Clinton is so hostile to Putin, but he didn't even mention her.

00:58:13.120 He said he got along well enough with Trump, which I think he did, even though, you know, Trump was a large force for increasing NATO spending.

00:58:24.120 But I think he was on to something where he said, you can change the leader at the top, but what about the elites mindset?

00:58:31.120 And it's true that the, I'd even say Russophobia, and I'm not a Russophile.

00:58:39.120 I'll never set foot in Russia.

00:58:41.120 I'm afraid that I would be politically targeted for my criticisms of Vladimir Putin and Gazprom.

00:58:46.120 I don't like the authoritarian regime there.

00:58:48.120 I think it's obviously less totalitarian than it was under Soviet times, but you've got a former KGB agent as president now.

00:58:55.120 It's not a gentle place if you have political views.

00:58:58.120 That said, I think hearing from him and understanding him is useful.

00:59:06.120 And of course he's skilled in propaganda.

00:59:09.120 Of course he is.

00:59:10.120 On the other hand, he's not as comfortable and routinely chatting with journalists.

00:59:18.120 It's not as large.

00:59:19.120 I mean, think about how much time our politicians spend in a day dealing with the media.

00:59:26.120 They have press releases every day.

00:59:29.120 They have press conferences for those press releases.

00:59:31.120 The one hour of question period doesn't actually get any answers.

00:59:36.120 It's just a show time for the media.

00:59:39.120 I put it to you that at least 50% of the day for a Canadian politician is how to get media

00:59:48.120 and how to control media coverage of what a politician does.

00:59:51.120 And then I'd say a quarter of the rest of the time is thinking about the reelection, dealing with constituents, fundraising.

01:00:00.120 I'd say at most only a quarter of the time of a politician in the West is actually focused on governing, let alone thinking, planning, believing.

01:00:13.120 And I'm not saying that it's better to have a politician who doesn't have the worries of the media and democracy because although those exercises are shallow, they actually are accountability exercises.

01:00:27.120 We need a free press to scrutinize.

01:00:29.120 We need elections.

01:00:30.120 We need the checks and balances.

01:00:32.120 But Putin doesn't have any of those things.

01:00:34.120 He doesn't stand up in the Duma and answer tough questions.

01:00:38.120 He doesn't have to go.

01:00:41.120 I mean, there are elections there, but I think they're pretty much controlled.

01:00:45.120 It's not a good thing for Russia that they don't have the democratic checks and balances.

01:00:50.120 But on the other hand, it obviously frees their president to do a lot more thinking and doing and to think more deeply than any politician in the West does.

01:01:01.120 There aren't too many more clips I propose to show.

01:01:05.120 I mean, it really was a two hour marathon.

01:01:08.120 There were there were some funny moments.

01:01:10.120 I don't know if you can find it.

01:01:12.120 What clip do you have on standby there?

01:01:14.120 Oh, this is the exact point about when was the last time you talked to Biden.

01:01:20.120 Let's just let's just play this because I refer to it a few times.

01:01:22.120 Take a look.

01:01:23.120 You wouldn't be speaking to the Ukrainian president, you'd be speaking to the American president.

01:01:28.120 When was the last time you spoke to Joe Biden?

01:01:31.120 I cannot remember when I talked to him.

01:01:34.120 I do not remember.

01:01:36.120 We can look it up.

01:01:37.120 You don't remember?

01:01:39.120 No.

01:01:40.120 Why?

01:01:41.120 Do I have to remember everything?

01:01:43.120 I have my own things to do.

01:01:45.120 We have domestic political affairs.

01:01:47.120 Well, he's funding the war that you're fighting.

01:01:49.120 So I would think that would be memorable.

01:01:51.120 And I'm definitely interested.

01:01:53.120 But from the outside, it seems like this could devolve or evolve into something that brings

01:01:59.120 the entire world into conflict and could initiate some nuclear launch.

01:02:04.120 And so why don't you just call Biden and say, let's work this out?

01:02:10.120 What's there to work out?

01:02:15.120 It's very simple.

01:02:16.120 I repeat, we have contacts through various agencies.

01:02:23.120 I will tell you what we are saying on this matter and what we are conveying to the US leadership.

01:02:29.120 If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons.

01:02:34.120 It will be over within a few weeks.

01:02:37.120 That's it.

01:02:38.120 And then we can agree on some terms.

01:02:41.120 Before you do that, stop.

01:02:43.120 What's easier?

01:02:45.120 Why would I call him?

01:02:47.120 What should I talk to him about?

01:02:49.120 Or beg him for what?

01:02:51.120 And what messages do you get back?

01:02:53.120 You're going to deliver such and such weapons to Ukraine?

01:02:58.120 Oh, I'm afraid.

01:02:59.120 I'm afraid.

01:03:00.120 Please don't.

01:03:01.120 What is there to talk about?

01:03:04.120 Hmm.

01:03:05.120 That's a very powerful exchange.

01:03:08.120 And I think it's honest, by the way.

01:03:11.120 I don't think that's a lie.

01:03:12.120 I think the different agencies are talking to each other.

01:03:14.120 Of course they are.

01:03:15.120 Even during the depths of the Cold War.

01:03:18.120 That's why they put in the hot phone, the hotline.

01:03:21.120 But he's exactly right.

01:03:22.120 Why would he call Joe Biden?

01:03:24.120 And would Joe Biden even know who he is?

01:03:26.120 I don't know if you saw.

01:03:27.120 Do you have any of those Biden clips from yesterday?

01:03:29.120 Let me just mention this in passing.

01:03:32.120 I talked about the stamina, the intellectual focus, the physical comfort, the physical appearance of Vladimir Putin.

01:03:40.120 And that's relevant because, like I say, I've read reports for years that he's on death's door.

01:03:45.120 He's sick.

01:03:46.120 He's ailing.

01:03:47.120 He has a body double.

01:03:49.120 What I saw on this interview was Tucker Carlson trying to keep up with Putin in terms of energy.

01:03:58.120 Putin was attentive.

01:03:59.120 He didn't forget things.

01:04:01.120 He was quoting statistics.

01:04:02.120 They talked about 20 subjects.

01:04:05.120 Could you imagine Vladimir Putin phoning up this guy, Joe Biden?

01:04:09.120 And let me just give you a little bit of background.

01:04:11.120 So Joe Biden, there was a special prosecutor, a special investigator, because Biden apparently gave some confidential state secrets to his biographer.

01:04:21.120 And the special prosecutor met with Biden several times about it to see if a prosecution should be filed.

01:04:27.120 And the report of the special prosecutor was no, including for reasons that he's an old man who forgets things and he lacks the mental element to commit a crime because he's cognitively in decline.

01:04:42.120 So this special prosecutor said, I spent a lot of time with Joe Biden.

01:04:45.120 We are not likely to convict because a jury will see him as a kindly old forgetful man.

01:04:52.120 In fact, here's the exact word, an elderly man with poor memory.

01:04:59.120 So they trotted out Joe Biden yesterday because he was really mad about this and he wanted to prove how good his cognitive abilities were.

01:05:09.120 And I want to show you two clips.

01:05:11.120 And if it's not in this one, get the next one ready to where he said Mexico instead of Gaza.

01:05:16.120 Let's take a look at this one.

01:05:18.120 I know there's some attention paid to some language and report about my recollection of events.

01:05:24.120 There's even reference that I don't remember when my son died.

01:05:29.120 How the hell dare he raise that?

01:05:32.120 Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, wasn't any other damn business.

01:05:38.120 Let me tell you something.

01:05:41.120 Some of you have commented, I wear since the day he died every single day the rosary he got from Our Lady.

01:05:48.120 Every Memorial Day, we hold a service remembering him, attending my friends and family and the people who loved him.

01:05:58.120 I don't need anyone.

01:06:00.120 I don't need anyone to remind me when he passed away or passed away.

01:06:05.120 The simple truth is I sat for a five-hour interview over two days of events going back 40 years.

01:06:12.120 At the same time I was managing an international crisis, their task was to make a decision about whether to move forward with charges in this case.

01:06:20.120 That's their decision to make.

01:06:22.120 That's the council's decision to make.

01:06:24.120 That's his job.

01:06:25.120 And they decided not to move forward.

01:06:28.120 For any extraneous commentary, they don't know what they're talking about.

01:06:33.120 It has no place in this report.

01:06:35.120 The bottom line as a matter is now closed.

01:06:38.120 I'm going to continue what I've always focused on, my job of being President of the United States of America.

01:06:43.120 President Biden, something the special counsel said in his report is that one of the reasons you were not charged is because, in his description, you are a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.

01:06:57.120 I'm well-meaning, and I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing.

01:07:01.120 I've been President, and I put this country back on its feet.

01:07:04.120 I don't need his recommendation.

01:07:06.120 How bad is your memory, and can you continue as President?

01:07:10.120 My memory is so bad I let you speak.

01:07:13.120 Do you think your memory has gotten worse, Mr. President?

01:07:18.120 My memory is fine.

01:07:20.120 My memory, take a look at what I've done since I become President.

01:07:23.120 None of you thought I could pass any of the things I got passed.

01:07:26.120 How'd that happen?

01:07:27.120 You know, I guess I just forgot what was going on.

01:07:30.120 Mr. President, Mr. President.

01:07:32.120 Do voters have concerns about your age?

01:07:34.120 How are you going to persuade them?

01:07:36.120 Do you fear that this report is only going to fuel further concerns about your age?

01:07:40.120 Only by some of you.

01:07:41.120 Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, do you want to clear about criminal liability today?

01:07:46.120 Mr. President, do you take responsibility for at least being careless with classified material?

01:07:51.120 I take responsibility for not having seen exactly what my staff was doing.

01:07:58.120 It goes in and points out.

01:08:00.120 Things that appeared in my garage, things that came out of my home,

01:08:03.120 things that were moved not by me, but my staff.

01:08:06.120 But my staff.

01:08:08.120 Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President,

01:08:14.120 for months when you were asked about your age, you would respond with the words, watch me.

01:08:20.120 Many American people have been watching and they have expressed concerns about your age.

01:08:25.120 That is your judgment.

01:08:27.120 That is your judgment.

01:08:28.120 That is not the judgment of the press.

01:08:30.120 They expressed concerns about your mental acuity.

01:08:33.120 They say that you are too old.

01:08:34.120 Mr. President, in December, you told me that you believe there are many other Democrats who could defeat Donald Trump.

01:08:40.120 So why does it have to be you now?

01:08:42.120 What is your answer to that question?

01:08:44.120 Because I'm the most qualified person in this country to be President of the United States and finish the job I started.

01:08:50.120 You know, that press conference, there was a number of things yesterday that just made, he went out to demonstrate how sharp he was, but oh my God.

01:09:01.120 You know, he mixed up Mexico and Gaza.

01:09:08.120 And I want to go to, I just sent you a link to a Twitter account called Technofog, Olivia, where he's posting various excerpts from this report by Special Counsel Robert Herr.

01:09:28.120 So it found that Joe Biden retained all these secrets, kept him in his garage and stuff.

01:09:33.120 Can you scroll down a bit?

01:09:35.120 You know, he unlawfully retained classified notes, gave classified info to his ghostwriter.

01:09:43.120 But scroll down to where they describe how forgetful he was.

01:09:49.120 And it's, scroll down a bit, a little bit further.

01:09:54.120 Biden's serious cognitive issues are exposed.

01:09:57.120 And he's quoting, yeah, it's right here.

01:10:01.120 He did not remember when he was vice president.

01:10:08.120 He forgot when his term began.

01:10:13.120 He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Bo died.

01:10:24.120 And you saw he was asked about that.

01:10:27.120 And he was really mad.

01:10:28.120 How dare you?

01:10:29.120 I remembered Bo.

01:10:30.120 So he didn't deny that he couldn't remember when his son Bo died.

01:10:33.120 He just was very mad that someone would ask him that personal question.

01:10:38.120 I show you these clips.

01:10:41.120 And I don't need to show you the clip about, he called the president of Mexico the president of Egypt or something.

01:10:48.120 He confused Francois Mitterrand, a French leader who was dead for years.

01:10:55.120 Do you really think that Vladimir Putin would call up Joe Biden?

01:11:01.120 For what reason?

01:11:03.120 So Joe Biden could ask him who he was again?

01:11:07.120 I just want to show you one last clip.

01:11:09.120 And it's the CIA one.

01:11:10.120 I sent it to Olivia.

01:11:11.120 Do you have it there?

01:11:14.120 So, Tucker Carlson's an interesting guy.

01:11:17.120 I'm a big fan, by the way.

01:11:19.120 I like his style.

01:11:20.120 I like how he's gone independent.

01:11:22.120 I love the fact that he doesn't care who dislikes him.

01:11:27.120 In fact, he sort of loves it.

01:11:28.120 I like the fact that he cares about Canada.

01:11:30.120 I really get a chuckle out of the fact that he deliberately mispronounces Ottawa just to get Canadian liberals furious.

01:11:38.120 There's a lot of things I like about Tucker Carlson.

01:11:40.120 I don't know everything about him.

01:11:41.120 I've never met him in person.

01:11:43.120 I've just dealt with him through a TV camera those times I was on his show.

01:11:50.120 I didn't know he applied to join the CIA when he was a young man.

01:11:55.120 And, of course, Putin is a former KGB man.

01:12:00.120 Let me play this very short clip, it's just 20 seconds, of Putin sort of bringing up the CIA thing in a little jab.

01:12:09.120 It's sort of funny.

01:12:10.120 Take a look.

01:12:11.120 With the backing of whom?

01:12:13.120 With the backing of CIA, of course.

01:12:20.120 The organization you wanted to join back in the day, as I understand.

01:12:25.120 We should thank God they didn't let you in.

01:12:27.120 Although, it is a serious organization.

01:12:30.120 I understand.

01:12:32.120 With the backing of who?

01:12:34.120 I think that was in response to the question, who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.

01:12:39.120 Well, listen, we've sort of hopped around the video a lot.

01:12:44.120 And, Olivia, thank you very much for finding those things on the go.

01:12:47.120 I know I throw things at you.

01:12:48.120 And it's a two-hour video, so finding the exact moment to the second is not easy to do in a two-hour video.

01:12:56.120 I recommend it.

01:12:57.120 I have not yet watched the whole thing from end to end.

01:13:00.120 I've just really zeroed in on different parts.

01:13:02.120 And it's sort of tough to get right into because of that 30-minute history lecture on Russia.

01:13:09.120 But, frankly, let's check the view count on it.

01:13:12.120 Because an hour and a half ago when we checked, do you remember what it was, the view count?

01:13:17.120 130 million or so.

01:13:19.120 Let's take a look what it is now, just in the last hour and 15 minutes.

01:13:24.120 136 million.

01:13:27.120 So are you saying that it's grown by 6 million?

01:13:30.120 Was it like exactly 130 million?

01:13:32.120 Do you remember?

01:13:34.120 So even as we've been sitting here, 6.5 million people have watched this version.

01:13:41.120 But there are many, every single clip we've shown you has been cut and reposted by someone else.

01:13:48.120 A lot of people saw it on Tucker Carlson's own website.

01:13:53.120 And if it's had 136 million views on that alone, I don't think it's crazy to think that this video and all its clippings have been seen a billion times.

01:14:08.120 I mean, I think far more people have seen the little clips than watched the whole thing.

01:14:14.120 Now I acknowledge that 136 million views, maybe that's only for a few seconds.

01:14:20.120 But even if only 10% of those people watch a significant amount, that is an enormous audience.

01:14:27.120 And I think people, you don't think Hillary Clinton was watching it?

01:14:32.120 You don't think Vladimir Zelensky was watching it?

01:14:35.120 They talked about Zelensky.

01:14:36.120 In fact, let's just dig up one more thing.

01:14:38.120 And let me, I would go to Twitter and I would search Putin, Zelensky, father.

01:14:45.120 Because I thought this was an interesting exchange.

01:14:48.120 Putin and Zelensky have spoken before.

01:14:51.120 In fact, Zelensky, when he ran for office, ran as the peace candidate.

01:14:54.120 And one of the conversations in the video was about, yeah, that's the exact clip there, was about the denazification.

01:15:01.120 One of the things that Tucker Carlson asked was, what are your goals?

01:15:06.120 What do you want to happen in Ukraine and how will it happen if you don't conquer the whole place?

01:15:10.120 And one of the things Putin said is denazification.

01:15:13.120 I think that first clip there is the one.

01:15:16.120 It's just a very brief one where he talks about his last conversation with Zelensky about how can you not fight against fascists.

01:15:23.120 Your father did.

01:15:24.120 And remember, Zelensky is a Jew.

01:15:26.120 Take a look.

01:15:27.120 He said, Volodya, what are you doing?

01:15:31.120 Why are you supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine today while your father fought against fascism?

01:15:37.120 He was a frontline soldier.

01:15:40.120 I will not tell you what he answered.

01:15:42.120 This is a separate topic.

01:15:43.120 And I think it's incorrect for me to do so, said Volodya.

01:15:48.120 Isn't that interesting?

01:15:49.120 So that's just a very tight clip there.

01:15:51.120 But the intro to that would be he called Zelensky or they talked on the phone.

01:15:55.120 I don't know who called him.

01:15:56.120 And he tried to appeal to Zelensky's family tradition because his father fought against the Nazis, apparently.

01:16:04.120 That's an interesting thing.

01:16:07.120 And an also interesting thing is Putin did not say what Zelensky told him.

01:16:14.120 I don't know.

01:16:15.120 Is that some sort of code of honor or something?

01:16:17.120 Or I don't know.

01:16:18.120 But I think he did that a couple of times in the interview where I think a Western politician would have said, Aha, I have a juicy tidbit about my enemy.

01:16:26.120 I'm going to release it now.

01:16:27.120 Putin didn't give in to that impulse if he had it at all.

01:16:32.120 I saw Tucker Carlson recorded a sort of a nine minute after the fact, you know, decompressing comment when he was still his head was surely swirling.

01:16:45.120 And he said it's going to take him a year to fully understand what he heard.

01:16:48.120 And I think he's probably right.

01:16:51.120 I think a lot of CIA and MI5 or 6 or whichever one it is, a lot of people are going to be analyzing that, the Ukrainian intelligence, NATO intelligence.

01:17:01.120 A lot of Russians are going to be watching it.

01:17:03.120 And because remember, Putin was talking to the West, but he was also talking in Russian to his own country.

01:17:08.120 He was talking to Ukraine.

01:17:09.120 He was talking to NATO.

01:17:10.120 He was talking to China.

01:17:11.120 He was talking to the world.

01:17:13.120 He was the biggest moment for Tucker Carlson.

01:17:15.120 It was probably one of the biggest moments for Putin, too.

01:17:18.120 There will be a lot to be studied there.

01:17:21.120 And, of course, Hillary Clinton's right to say politicians lie.

01:17:25.120 And authoritarian dictators probably lie more than most.

01:17:28.120 But when he describes his views on BRICS and China and the de-dollarization and sanctions and purchasing power and economic, how are those lies?

01:17:40.120 How are those not obvious observations of someone who has a different worldview?

01:17:45.120 Russia's always straddled west and east.

01:17:48.120 I mean, Vladivostok is so far.

01:17:51.120 It's over Japan.

01:17:52.120 That's how far east Russia goes.

01:17:55.120 So far east it almost comes west again and touches Alaska.

01:17:59.120 And yet it's in the heart of Europe as well.

01:18:02.120 It's always had sort of a split personality.

01:18:06.120 And is it eastern or is it western?

01:18:09.120 And one of the things that Tucker acknowledged in his sort of after, right after the moment videos is he said he felt Putin had some anger about the way things have gone.

01:18:23.120 But also that Putin felt that Russia was rejected by the west, that Russia was not warmly welcomed into the west.

01:18:30.120 You know, I don't know if you can find it.

01:18:32.120 I keep adding things on here.

01:18:34.120 But there was a clip, search Putin join NATO.

01:18:41.120 Putin, Clinton, NATO.

01:18:45.120 Because Putin said, if I'm remembering correctly, is that the one there?

01:18:55.120 Yeah, go ahead and play it.

01:19:01.120 ... created by the Russian leadership.

01:19:06.120 I do not understand what the Russian leadership was guided by at the time.

01:19:11.120 But I suspect there were several reasons to think everything would be fine.

01:19:16.120 First, I think that then Russian leadership believed that the fundamentals of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine were, in fact, a common language.

01:19:31.120 More than 90% of the population there spoke.

01:19:33.120 You know, let me stop you there, because I think that clip's not the right time code, but I just sent you a clip in Slack.

01:19:39.120 Putin asked, can we join NATO?

01:19:45.120 What?

01:19:46.120 NATO was built to deter the Soviet Union.

01:19:50.120 And here's the leader of Russia saying, can we join?

01:19:52.120 Take a look.

01:19:53.120 I think this is the right clip.

01:19:54.120 Take a look.

01:19:55.120 I had a meeting here in the Kremlin with the outgoing President Bill Clinton, right here in the next room.

01:20:01.120 I said to him, I asked him,

01:20:04.120 Bill, do you think if Russia asked to join NATO, do you think it would happen?

01:20:11.120 Suddenly he said, you know, it's interesting.

01:20:16.120 I think so.

01:20:17.120 But in the evening, when we met for dinner, he said, you know, I've talked to my team.

01:20:24.120 No, no, it's not possible now.

01:20:27.120 You can ask him, I think he will watch our interview, he'll confirm it.

01:20:32.120 I wouldn't have said anything like that if it hadn't happened.

01:20:37.120 Okay, well, it's impossible now.

01:20:39.120 Were you sincere?

01:20:40.120 Would you have joined NATO?

01:20:43.120 Look, I asked the question, is it possible or not?

01:20:47.120 And the answer I got was no.

01:20:49.120 If I wasn't sincere in my desire to find out what the leadership position was...

01:20:53.120 But if he had said yes, would you have joined NATO?

01:20:58.120 If he had said yes, the process of rapprochement would have commenced, and eventually it might have happened, if we had seen some sincere wish on the other side of our party.

01:21:11.120 Isn't that a crazy idea?

01:21:15.120 I forget who came up with the phrase to explain NATO.

01:21:19.120 It was to keep the Germans down, the Soviets out, and the Americans in.

01:21:29.120 How does NATO work if the Russians are in it?

01:21:42.120 Isn't the whole purpose of NATO to protect against Russia and the Red Army?

01:21:48.120 Did I blow your mind by, you know, did Putin blow your mind by saying, can we join NATO?

01:21:55.120 Imagine if they, I mean, I don't even know how that works, because that would be like, I don't even know what that would be like.

01:22:05.120 It's just so, it's like water and fire.

01:22:07.120 The whole purpose of water is to put out the fire, but what if the fire says, I'd like to be part of the fire department?

01:22:13.120 Well, maybe it's not fire anymore, or maybe it's a trick.

01:22:16.120 I don't know, maybe it's an arsonist, maybe he's sneaking, maybe he's a Trojan horse, but what an incredible thing.

01:22:20.120 And he says Clinton would recall it, of course, I mean, that would be, of course, that's, he's not going to lie about that.

01:22:28.120 What's Bill Clinton's answer to that?

01:22:31.120 Maybe it's an absurd point that, absurd question that should not have been entertained, but I think the world would have been quite different.

01:22:39.120 Isn't that interesting?

01:22:40.120 There's a lot of things in there, like that alone will stimulate a thousand reverberations.

01:22:46.120 Maybe that was well known already, but it was certainly news to me.

01:22:51.120 I don't know, very interesting.

01:22:53.120 Listen, I could throw the clips all day and I wouldn't be done, but let me close by showing you the reaction by some of the world's journalists.

01:23:05.120 One of my favorite journalists in the world is Andrew Neil, and he is, I think, the best interviewer in the English language.

01:23:18.120 And I've seen him just absolutely fillet politicians.

01:23:24.120 He's in the UK.

01:23:26.120 I've seen him destroy Jeremy Corbyn.

01:23:29.120 I've seen him destroy Tories and people of every stripe.

01:23:33.120 I remember when Ben Shapiro went on Andrew Neil's show, was not prepared.

01:23:36.120 Holy moly.

01:23:37.120 I mean, I like Ben Shapiro's style.

01:23:39.120 I generally agree with him, but he did not realize what he was getting into.

01:23:44.120 Andrew Neil, who I actually think is the best interviewer in the world, and he's one of the longest serving journalists.

01:23:51.120 He was the chief editor of so many different magazines and newspapers.

01:23:57.120 Here's what he said.

01:24:00.120 He said, Tucker Carlson's Vladimir Putin stunt was like interviewing Hitler without asking about the concentration camps.

01:24:09.120 It confirmed the Russian president is mad, bad and dangerous.

01:24:13.120 And his interlocutor is a fool.

01:24:16.120 And it goes on that way.

01:24:21.120 And I read most of it, but I got halfway through it, and he didn't say a word about the interview.

01:24:26.120 And so here, let's just read a little bit together, just a little bit together.

01:24:31.120 In the end, it was no contest.

01:24:33.120 Tucker Carlson, bloviating broadcaster for the pro-Trump MAGA movement, was blown out of the water by President Putin, dictator of all the Russias.

01:24:42.120 Carlson thought he was doing the Russian leader a favor by going to Moscow to give him a platform to explain why he invaded Ukraine and the multiple conspiracy theories associated with it, which Carlson and the MAGA cult uncritically lap up.

01:24:57.120 But Putin did Carlson no favors.

01:25:00.120 Right from the get-go, Putin hijacked the interview with an interminable discourse on Russian history, which started in the 9th century and took over half an hour to get to the 20th century, much less Putin's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, which took almost another half hour.

01:25:14.120 If this is how Putin treats his friends, you can understand why his enemies fear him.

01:25:18.120 He even teased Carlson about once trying to join the CIA.

01:25:23.120 Carlson, bar a couple of feeble interjections, just sat there with an increasingly pained expression as he realized what was meant to be his guest.

01:25:31.120 Great broadcasting coup, Putin's first interview with the Western media since the invasion, was disappearing down the Suwannee.

01:25:38.120 Far from being a great meeting of the minds between Kremlin leader and Kremlin lover, it looked as if Carlson, whose pain was turning to panic as he realized he couldn't stop Putin pontificating, had been taken hostage by a lugubrious and deranged Russian uncle, forced to listen forever to his ramblings.

01:25:56.120 It must have been torture, something which the Putin regime is particularly adept.

01:26:00.120 Those of us diligently watching the two-hour snooze fest so you don't have to were rapidly losing the will to live.

01:26:05.120 It goes on and on and on and on.

01:26:08.120 And so far, he hasn't really mentioned any of the news that was broken or any of the interesting things there.

01:26:15.120 I have never interviewed a president.

01:26:19.120 I've certainly never interviewed anyone of the stature of Vladimir Putin.

01:26:24.120 Really, there would only be a handful of people in the world at that level.

01:26:27.120 I would think the prime minister of Britain, the president of France, chancellor of Germany, president of the United States, and president of Russia, and Xi Jinping, and the president of Japan.

01:26:36.120 I think, I mean, and president of India.

01:26:37.120 I mean, other than prime minister of India, other than, like, there's probably 10 people in the world in politics at that level.

01:26:43.120 Obviously, I've never come close to any of them.

01:26:45.120 But I have interviewed, for example, I interviewed Geert Wilders, the winner of the Dutch parliamentary elections a couple months ago in the Netherlands.

01:26:58.120 And I remember what I was thinking.

01:27:00.120 Let me just tell you, because I think maybe Tucker had the same thoughts.

01:27:03.120 He thought, I only have a limited amount of time with this guy.

01:27:07.120 I'll be able to give my opinions and my interpretations and my thoughts after, on my own time, unlimited.

01:27:14.120 But if I only have 15, 20, 30 minutes with the newsmaker, I want to keep my questions succinct.

01:27:21.120 I want to give him maximum talk time.

01:27:24.120 So the video is not me giving speeches.

01:27:28.120 It's me listening to an actual newsmaker.

01:27:31.120 So my first point to Andrew Neil is, when Tucker Carlson sat there listening, I don't think it was out of obsequiousness or obedience or submission.

01:27:40.120 I think it's, I've got this man, and he's talking, and I want to hear every word because there is literally nothing I have to say that is more important for me to say than to listen to what he has to say.

01:27:53.120 On a few occasions, Tucker Carlson did, in fact, ask for clarification, or as you saw with the journalist freeing the Wall Street Journal prisoner, he challenged Putin repeatedly.

01:28:03.120 Actually, we didn't even show the whole clip of that.

01:28:05.120 But Andrew Neil, oh, he's obsequious in the MAGA cult, MAGA, MAGA, failed journalist, fired, like Hillary Clinton did.

01:28:15.120 Can I tell you what is so obvious?

01:28:17.120 It's as plain as the nose on your face.

01:28:19.120 Andrew Neil wishes it was him doing that interview.

01:28:24.120 And you know what?

01:28:26.120 Boy, I'd love to see that because it's true.

01:28:31.120 And I don't know if you can find it.

01:28:32.120 Can you type in Andrew Neil, Jeremy Corbyn?

01:28:37.120 And that's just, I mean, that's just one of many interviews I've seen Andrew Neil do, and it was just brutal.

01:28:45.120 I want to show you what Andrew Neil is like in interviews.

01:28:49.120 Yeah, just go ahead and throw some of this on the screen.

01:28:52.120 Andrew Neil's the one on the left, Jeremy Corbyn's the one on the right.

01:28:55.120 Just play a random 60 seconds, and I'll make my point afterwards.

01:29:04.120 What's your response?

01:29:05.120 Yeah, go ahead and rewind the question so we hear the question.

01:29:10.120 You, he says.

01:29:12.120 He questions your fit for office.

01:29:15.120 What's your response?

01:29:16.120 I'm looking forward to having a discussion with him because I want to hear why he would say such a thing.

01:29:23.120 So far as I'm concerned, anti-Semitism is not acceptable in any form anywhere in our society,

01:29:30.120 and obviously certainly not in my party, the Labour Party.

01:29:34.120 When I became leader in 2015, I looked at processes that were available for dealing with egregious behaviour,

01:29:40.120 and they weren't as good as they should have been.

01:29:42.120 We've developed a much stronger process.

01:29:45.120 We have sanctioned people that have behaved in an anti-Semitic way, removed some from party membership,

01:29:51.120 and indeed even removed people as candidates.

01:29:54.120 And as far as I'm concerned, it's just not acceptable in any form in society.

01:29:58.120 When the far right are rising across Europe using anti-Semitic tropes in order to intimidate people,

01:30:04.120 then I think we've all got to stand up together on this.

01:30:07.120 It's not the far right he's worried about. I'm sure he is worried about the far right,

01:30:10.120 but that's not the result of this unprecedented intervention.

01:30:13.120 It's about you and how anti-Semitism rose as a problem in the Labour Party after you became leader. Why?

01:30:20.120 It didn't rise after I became leader.

01:30:23.120 That's what the case is.

01:30:24.120 Well, anti-Semitism is there in society.

01:30:29.120 There are a very, very small number of people in the Labour Party that have been sanctioned as a result of complaints about their anti-Semitic behaviour.

01:30:38.120 As far as I'm concerned, one is one too many, and I've ensured action is taken on that.

01:30:43.120 But we've also, on a positive side, recognised the need for education.

01:30:47.120 We just chose a random moment.

01:30:49.120 But you can see he's brutal.

01:30:51.120 He's got facts.

01:30:52.120 I mean, that's not an iconic Andrew Neil moment.

01:30:56.120 But he comes with, like, he's like a prosecutor.

01:30:59.120 He's extremely well briefed on his files.

01:31:04.120 Actually, you know what?

01:31:05.120 Can you, I want to show another clip.

01:31:07.120 Can you type in Andrew Neil Boris Johnson?

01:31:12.120 Of course, Boris Johnson, former mayor of London, former prime minister.

01:31:17.120 Boris Johnson went on and he used some jargon that he didn't know what he was talking about.

01:31:28.120 And Andrew Neil could detect it.

01:31:30.120 And I don't know if you're going to be able to find that clip, but it was unbelievable.

01:31:35.120 He caught him not knowing what...

01:31:38.120 This is probably it.

01:31:48.120 Nope.

01:31:53.120 Let me see.

01:31:54.120 Andrew Neil Boris Johnson.

01:31:58.120 And I know we're an hour and a half into this, but this is just so good.

01:32:04.120 I've just got to show it to you.

01:32:09.120 And I appreciate everybody waiting.

01:32:14.120 Well, I can't actually find it now.

01:32:20.120 Anyways, let me come back.

01:32:25.120 My point is Andrew Neil is more like a prosecutor than an interviewer.

01:32:38.120 And he doesn't do softball interviews.

01:32:42.120 He doesn't lob questions.

01:32:44.120 He...

01:32:45.120 And he's thought through his questions.

01:32:46.120 He thinks, well, what's the answer going to be?

01:32:48.120 And then how can I attack that?

01:32:49.120 Like, he really could be a prosecutor.

01:32:52.120 And so it is true that an Andrew Neil interview of Vladimir Putin would be unbelievable.

01:33:02.120 But that's not going to happen.

01:33:07.120 It couldn't happen.

01:33:08.120 Putin wouldn't allow it.

01:33:11.120 I doubt Andrew Neil even tried.

01:33:14.120 Who knows?

01:33:15.120 Maybe Putin would be up for it.

01:33:17.120 I mean, Putin looks like he's up for anything in terms of questions.

01:33:21.120 I mean, there was a wide range of questions.

01:33:23.120 There were questions about religion and the place of God that Tucker asked him.

01:33:30.120 I think that when you're interviewing an authoritarian leader, part of the issue is what can I say that won't get me thrown in jail?

01:33:39.120 Now, they're not going to jail Andrew Neil or Tucker Carlson.

01:33:43.120 What can I say and not have the interview cut short?

01:33:47.120 What can I say and have the interview happen at all?

01:33:51.120 And by the way, that last question applies here in Canada, too.

01:33:56.120 Do you think Justin Trudeau would ever grant me a question?

01:33:58.120 I know I would ask better questions than the CBC does, but that's why I'm not going to be allowed to ask him questions.

01:34:05.120 So Andrew Neil, who I will acknowledge is the world's best interviewer, but he's not going to get an interview with Vladimir Putin.

01:34:14.120 I think Tucker Carlson is, well, I mean, let me put it this way.

01:34:19.120 He is the first Western journalist to interview Vladimir Putin since the war.

01:34:23.120 And of all the journalists to do it, is he sympathetic to Putin?

01:34:29.120 I would say it in the reverse.

01:34:30.120 I'd say he's not hostile to Putin.

01:34:33.120 And I think he rejects and identifies the inherent hostility towards Putin in the Western political media establishment.

01:34:42.120 I think he might like Putin, but I don't think he's a Putin shill.

01:34:45.120 And I think he was aware of that the whole time.

01:34:49.120 Well, there we go.

01:34:50.120 I've talked for 90 minutes straight about the interview.

01:34:55.120 During that time, you could have watched three quarters of it yourself.

01:34:58.120 But I hope you thought it was somewhat useful to go through this with you.

01:35:03.120 I want to take a quick read of the super chats and then I'm going to say goodbye because we're so over time.

01:35:10.120 By the way, I recommend you watching the whole thing.

01:35:13.120 I haven't watched the whole thing because I skipped over the half hour history lesson, but maybe I should go back and do that.

01:35:18.120 Frankly, I just didn't have the time.

01:35:21.120 Alberta Don chipped in five bucks.

01:35:23.120 NDP was on Calgary radio saying Alberta needs Ontario style peak hour electricity rates to prevent power shortages during cold snaps.

01:35:30.120 Before the green wave, we didn't need coal power from Montana.

01:35:34.120 I think anyone who's against cheap, reliable energy is an enemy to mankind.

01:35:43.120 And it's often the same people who are against cheap, nutritious food.

01:35:49.120 The same people who are against carbon dioxide in oil and gas are against nitrogen in farming.

01:35:57.120 And they just use carbon and nitrogen as these attempts to scientificify their basic ideological war on prosperity.

01:36:06.120 I just think that's pretty obvious.

01:36:08.120 I actually don't know if there's any other super chats or rumble rants, so I'll wrap it up there.

01:36:12.120 Well, listen, thanks very much for listening.

01:36:16.120 Let me sum up if you need my views on Vladimir Putin.

01:36:20.120 I'm not sure if you do need my views.

01:36:22.120 But my view is that he is an authoritarian ruler who violates civil liberties, who invades other countries, who abuses his own citizens, but also abuses the West.

01:36:37.120 And he often does so through the oil and gas weapons.

01:36:41.120 Russia is one of the world's largest producers of both.

01:36:44.120 And in fact, to this day, a great number of European countries are totally reliant on Russian natural gas, which is what Ronald Reagan warned about.

01:36:53.120 Reagan in the 80s said, do not build a pipeline to Europe.

01:36:56.120 You will be reliant on your enemy's energy.

01:36:59.120 And that is the tool that Putin has used, not only to enrich himself, but to hold Europe hostage.

01:37:06.120 And Canada could be an antidote to that.

01:37:09.120 Canada could sell liquid by natural gas, LNG.

01:37:12.120 In fact, Putin, I don't know if we have time for it.

01:37:14.120 Do you have time to play the clip of Putin referring to the Canadian parliament?

01:37:21.120 And this is right when he was talking about denazifying Ukraine, is Justin Trudeau gave Vladimir Putin one of his most powerful propaganda talking points.

01:37:33.120 And to Canada's embarrassment, Putin brought it up last night.

01:37:39.120 Justin Trudeau invited a bona fide Nazi SS officer to parliament.

01:37:47.120 Now, Putin adds a detail I was not sure of.

01:37:50.120 He claims that Yaroslav Hanke actually murdered Jews and others.

01:37:55.120 I was unaware of that, although I understand in the Nazi SS that was sort of a rite of passage.

01:38:00.120 Here, let's play that clip.

01:38:02.120 You say Hitler has been dead for so many years, 80 years.

01:38:07.120 But his example lives on.

01:38:09.120 People who exterminated Jews, Russians and Poles are alive.

01:38:14.120 And the president, the current president of today's Ukraine, applauds him in the Canadian parliament, gives a standing ovation.

01:38:23.120 Can we say that we have completely uprooted this ideology if what we see is happening today?

01:38:30.120 That is what denazification is in our understanding.

01:38:34.120 We have to get rid of those people who maintain this concept and support this practice and try to preserve it.

01:38:41.120 That is what denazification is.

01:38:44.120 That is what we mean.

01:38:46.120 Yeah.

01:38:47.120 Thanks, Justin Trudeau, for giving Vladimir Putin a talking point.

01:38:53.120 Here's what I learned yesterday in closing.

01:38:56.120 I learned that Vladimir Putin is physically and mentally stronger than Joe Biden.

01:39:01.120 You could probably guess that.

01:39:03.120 I learned that Vladimir Putin thinks about his country in the sweep of history and destiny and national interests and he thinks about his country's long term future in ways that our Western leaders do not.

01:39:18.120 I learned that Vladimir Putin is not used to the back and forth banter as democratic politicians are because there is no vibrant, antagonistic, pluralistic press corps in Russia.

01:39:32.120 So he's used to giving long professorial answers to people who just sit there and take notes.

01:39:37.120 I think that half hour historical answer is sort of how he probably normally talks and woe unto the flunky who expresses impatience.

01:39:46.120 I think that what Putin said about his interests in becoming more allied with the West are most likely true.

01:39:55.120 If he did, in fact, ask Clinton, could Russia possibly join?

01:39:59.120 I think that perhaps there was an enormous opportunity that was missed.

01:40:03.120 And the military industrial complex of the West said, no, we can never stop fighting Russia.

01:40:08.120 We always need an enemy.

01:40:09.120 Of course, now we've got radical Islam in China added as enemies, too.

01:40:14.120 I think as to the conflict in Ukraine, Putin said something that I think is credible, which is that he's open to a diplomatic solution.

01:40:23.120 The reason I say that's credible and not a lie is that Putin seemed dedicated to various treaties signed in Minsk and to a treaty that was being hammered out in Istanbul.

01:40:36.120 And it's been reported from various quarters, including from Israel, that it was Boris Johnson that discovered it, not Putin.

01:40:45.120 I don't believe Putin when he says he withdrew his military from Kiev as a sign of good faith.

01:40:51.120 I find that too far fetched.

01:40:53.120 It could be true.

01:40:54.120 It's the first I've heard of it.

01:40:56.120 And I think that for millions of people around the world, this is the first time they will have heard Vladimir Putin's side of the story.

01:41:05.120 Whether they believe it or not is up to them.

01:41:07.120 And I think Tucker Carlson has shown that he can rise to the occasion.

01:41:12.120 I think 90% of the criticism of Tucker Carlson is either by people who are putting their partisan or national loyalty out of their journalistic sense and saying, don't talk to bad people.

01:41:27.120 Hillary Clinton, don't talk to liars.

01:41:30.120 Well, then there wouldn't be any politicians on TV.

01:41:33.120 Or in the case of people like Andrew Neal, simply professional jealousy.

01:41:38.120 And I can understand that.

01:41:40.120 That's our show for today.

01:41:43.120 Until next time.

01:41:45.120 On behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home.

01:41:48.120 Good night.

01:41:49.120 Keep fighting for freedom.

01:41:51.120 And hey, if you're going to be in Alberta next week, can I take you to a movie?

01:41:56.120 See you later.

01:41:58.120 Oh, hi. Ezra Levant here from Rebel News.

01:42:00.120 Do you want to see a movie with me?

01:42:01.120 I'm going to be in Edmonton on Monday, February 12th.

01:42:04.120 And Calgary on Tuesday, February 13th for the release of our new documentary called Raid.

01:42:10.120 It's about a raid that the police tried to do on Rebel News.

01:42:13.120 We do documentaries from time to time.

01:42:15.120 This is the world premiere of this movie.

01:42:18.120 And we're going to be at Church in the Vine in Edmonton on Monday.

01:42:23.120 Doors open at 6.

01:42:24.120 Show starts at 6.

01:42:25.120 And in Calgary on Tuesday, we're going to be at the Canyon Meadows Cinema.

01:42:29.120 Same time.

01:42:30.120 Doors open at 6.

01:42:31.120 Movie starts at 6.

01:42:32.120 And I'm going to be there.

01:42:35.120 And a lot of rebels are going to be there.

01:42:37.120 I want to show you what happens when you stand up to tyranny.

01:42:41.120 The police come for you.

01:42:42.120 Details are at our special website, raid.movie.

01:42:47.120 R-A-I-D dot movie.

01:42:50.120 I hope to see you there.

01:42:51.120 Bye.

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Rebel News Podcast - February 09, 2024

Rebel Roundup ｜ Fallout from Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin

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